Silent Night
by NevadaRose
Summary: Festus and Kitty are heading home from the Ronninger's ranch on Christmas Eve when they meet with an unexpected delay. This is my response to the "Just like TV" challenge on the Gunsmoke proboard. It's a short Christmas story that would have made a half-hour black and white episode - but fits in somewhere around season 10. I welcome your comments here and on the proboard.


Silent Night

Kitty Russell felt like she was surrounded by children. There were only six of them, including the baby she held in her arms, but it seemed like quite a crowd. It was cold there in the dooryard at the Ronninger's ranch, but she felt warm inside and didn't want to leave. The crowd of small bodies surrounding her, pulling on her hands and holding her skirt while they begged her to stay, didn't help either.

"Now children, that is quite enough," came Bess Ronninger's voice – firm but warm. "You've had Miss Kitty and Mister Festus since last night and they need to be getting on back to Dodge City." _And,_ Kitty thought, _Bess and Will and their brood needed to move on with their own Christmas preparations._

Kitty handed the baby back to Bess, and let Will help her up into the waiting buggy. There had been enough hugs and kisses, breakfast was a good two hours behind them, and the back of the buggy was packed with smoked hams, cakes, two baskets of gingerbread, and a few small but precious personal gifts to be opened beneath the Christmas tree at the Long Branch later that night.

"Goodbye, Bess. Merry Christmas. Thank you for helping with the refreshments for the party and for letting us share this bit of Christmas with your family." Kitty's smile was as bright as the broad western sky.

Will tucked the heavy carriage robe around her and leaned in to kiss her cheek. He reached a hand across to shake with Festus, then slapped Kitty's mare firmly on the rump. "Merry Christmas, Kitty. You drive her careful, Festus." Will intoned while his family shouted good byes and Christmas greetings. One young voice raising itself clearly with "But I don't _want_ them to go!" was quickly shushed.

With a last wave, Kitty turned to look at the road before them. "Them young'uns sure do set a mighty big store by you, Miss Kitty," Festus chuckled. "I warsn't sure for a time there if we was never gonna git away."

"I wasn't either, Festus," Kitty replied, "But I do need to be back to the Long Branch before noon to get things set up for the party, and I promised Matt I'd have you back in time to help him this afternoon."

"Tweren't _me_ the Marshal was hopin' to have back early, Miss Kitty, and you know it," Festus replied, squinting his eyes sideways at her, but Kitty just laughed and slapped his knee. She admitted that, much as she enjoyed her overnight visit with Will and Bess, she was eager to get back to Dodge. It looked to be the first time in several years that Matt had no obligations to keep him out of town for Christmas – or for the big Christmas Eve party that Kitty held every year at the Long Branch.

They were still more than an hour from town when the sight of a big Conestoga wagon at the side of the road had Festus pulling up the mare with a loud "Whoa, there, whoa!" Two heavy matched geldings stood picketed beside the wagon, and a half-grown colt pivoted and gamboled next to them. No one was in sight, but at Festus' shouted "Hallo!" a small blonde head popped up like a toy on a string at the back of the wagon gate, and wide blue eyes regarded them with wonder.

Kitty smiled at the little boy, "Well, hello there! You all alone, young man?" she asked, but before the boy could answer two more heads popped up beside him – these ones with long blonde braids – and then all three heads turned back to look into the wagon as a woman's scream resounded across the prairie.

Kitty was down out of the buggy and unfastening the rear gate of the wagon before Festus even got the mare tied alongside. Climbing in past the three children, she found a very young, very frightened, and very pregnant blonde woman lying on a makeshift bed in the bottom of the wagon. But although the girl seemed overjoyed to see her, nothing Kitty tried elicited any response other than tears and a torrent of German as the woman grabbed Kitty's hands and refused to let go.

Outside, Festus was having a bit more luck with the children that he'd lifted down to the ground. "My name is Friedrich Schmidt and I have for one year school!" the blond boy told him proudly, and then went on dismissively, "This is Margareta and this is Louisa. They have no school. They are only little girls."

"Wail, there, Freed-rick, why don't you jus' go on an' tell me what you all are doing out here on the road all by your lonesome?" Festus asked, reaching out to smooth back the littlest girl's tousled hair.

"Mine father for a doctor has gone, because mine mother says she cannot no more in the wagon ride," the boy replied promptly.

This sent Festus to look over into the cluttered wagon bed to where Miss Kitty knelt next to the frightened young woman. "What you think we oughta do, Miss Kitty?" he asked.

"This girl's going to have a baby, Festus, and she'd sure be a sight more comfortable if we could get her to a house somewhere," Kitty replied. She had helped Doc deliver babies before, and it seemed to her that the girl was more frightened than actually hurting, but she was definitely in labor.

"Tain't no place close, Miss Kitty," told her, "You think maybe we should just hitch up the horses and drive on in to Dodge?"

Kitty shook her head. "That would hurt her awful bad, Festus, and I'm not sure if there's enough time. I'd sure like to get her out of this cold."

Festus looked up at the sky. It had turned colder and the blue of the early morning had given way to lowering dark grey clouds. At that moment a snowflake wavered gently down in front of him and another struck his face. Festus slapped his hat against his thigh, "I know what we can do Miss Kitty. The Pendleton place ain't no more than a quarter mile back along this road."

"Didn't the Pendleton's house burn down this fall?" Kitty asked, confused.

"Yes'm it shore did." Festus replied with a big grin, "But the barn didn't."

Relief filled Kitty's voice, "That would be just fine, Festus. Just fine."

After briefly stacking a small cairn of stones beside the road to indicate their direction, Festus hitched up the team to the wagon. With three little blonde children crowding him on the wagon seat, Kitty's buggy tied to the tailgate, and the dark foal kicking its heels behind, he turned the wagon in a wide circle and headed for the abandoned Pendleton ranch.

OoOoOoOoO

Matt Dillon was using that peaceful Christmas Eve morning to get caught up on his paperwork. He was also enjoying a cup of good coffee that he'd made himself – in a clean pot and with none of Festus' inventive additions. It had been a couple of years since he'd been home for Christmas and he was tied between being proud of arranging his duties to allow him that pleasure, and fear that some last minute emergency would call him away. Traffic along Front Street was light, but every time a buggy or wagon rolled by, he looked up, hoping it was Festus and Kitty, back from the Ronninger's. By the time Doc stopped by the office to invite him over to Delmonico's for noon dinner, he was beginning to worry. The snow that settled gently but heavily on his hat and coat as they walked across the street didn't ease his worry a bit.

OoOoOoOoO

Festus pulled the big wagon to a stop between the covered well and the big barn door. The Pendleton ranch had been a nice homestead, and would be again when someone settled in and rebuilt the house. But Bob Pendleton, disheartened by the death of his wife and youngest son in the fire, had pulled up stakes and left with his two older boys.

The woman, who had cried and screeched from the moment the wagon started moving, was quiet again. "Now you young'uns just sit right there until I have a looksee in that there barn, you hear me?" Festus said, stepping down from the wagon seat. He rolled open the big barn doors, and walked inside. The barn was good-sized with five wide stalls along one wall and a hayloft still stuffed with hay above them. The back corner had been made into an open tack room with two small glazed windows in the walls. The rest of the space was open, and the floor was hard packed earth.

Snow was falling more and more heavily as Festus walked back to the wagon and began lifting down the children one by one. "Miss Kitty, you just give me a minute or two to make a pile of hay for the missus there, and I'll get you two settled and get a fire started."

Kitty disentangled her hands from the blonde girl's clutches and climbed nimbly over the back gate of the wagon, ignoring the girl's cries. Pulling her cape close, she walked through the snow to the barn. Festus was already climbing the ladder to the hayloft, and the children were exploring every nook and cranny of the big room. "Can you pile hay in this first stall here, Festus?" she asked, "I'll go back and find some sheets and blankets to make her a bed. Do you think it's safe to have a fire in here?"

"No'm, I don't," he replied from above as armfuls of fragrant hay began to descend, "But there's a liddle biddy stove over there in that tack room against the outside wall, and I can light a fire there that will help warm the place and let us heat some water. I know that Doc always asks for lots of hot water when some woman's birthin' a baby."

Kitty retreated outside to find three very cold children chasing snowflakes and each other through the barnyard. The littlest girl threw her arms around Kitty's legs and, hiding her head in Kitty's long skirts, began a loud complaint in German. Kitty picked up the child and turned to her brother "What's she sayin' Friedrich? What's wrong?"

"She is only hungry, good lady. The girls are little and they are hungry. Louisa asks if you have some food in your buggy." The boy translated, adding, "I, Friedrich, am not so hungry. But I am a boy and older."

Kitty walked over to the buggy and handed Friedrich a basket of Bess' homemade gingerbread. "You children eat some of that. Not all of it now! You just give them each a piece or two, Friedrich. Festus and I will get some hot food going soon." Leaving the children oohing and aahing and cramming their mouths with the dark spicy treats, Kitty walked back to the wagon. Kneeling beside the crying woman she told her firmly, relying more on her tone than her words to get the message across, "Now listen here, young lady, we're going to get you warm and safe inside, and you and your baby are going to be fine. What's your name, honey? My name is Kitty."

"Kitty?" the girl replied, pointing to Kitty's chest.

"That's right. Kitty. What's your name?"

With a wavering smile, the girl pointed to her own chest and said "Katerina Maria" and then, tapping her chest again, "Katerina. Kat. Katerina."

"Well, what do you know?" Kitty laughed. "Hello Katerina. You just calm down, Katerina Maria, everything's going to be just fine."

Kitty worked her way through the various boxes and chests in the wagon, assembling a pile of sheets, coverlets, and towels. She found the woman's sewing basket and removed scissors and thread. Then, avoiding Katerina's clutching arms, she lifted the bedding down and carried it into the barn. Festus had piled hay high and thick in the first stall, and was busy building a fire in the small stove across the room. Kitty smoothed a sheet across the pile of hay and headed back to help Katerina Maria inside. When she was settled and covered with a blanket, Kitty went to consult with Festus.

"Can you try to talk with the boy some more, Festus?" she asked. "I'd sure like to know when his daddy left to go get Doc. I'd send you off to town, but I don't want to be stuck here alone with those three children when their mother starts delivering this baby."

"She don't hardly look old enough to be their mamma, Miss Kitty." Festus commented. "You think maybe she's their sister?"

Kitty shrugged. "Could be. Can you try to find out? It could make a lot of difference to know if this is a first baby or a fourth." She took a look back at where the girl lay whimpering on her bed of hay, "I think I'd bet on this being a first baby, Festus. That girl doesn't seem to have any idea what's going on. Oh, and Friedrich says the little girls are hungry. Being a boy, he's above things like that. You might try to find out when they last ate." She looked at the weak sunlight straggling in through the two small windows. "And try to find a couple of lanterns, Festus. There's not much light in here now, and there'll be less in a couple of hours."

"Yes'm, Miss Kitty. I shorely will." Festus agreed.

OoOoOoOoO

Half a mile out of Dodge City, a dark-haired man of about forty mounted bareback on a sturdy cream-colored mare sat facing a much younger dark-haired man mounted on a tall, strikingly beautiful palomino stud with a worked leather saddle and two stuffed saddlebags. The younger man had a gun. He also had a bullet hole through his left arm. The palomino had a lame leg. Neither man understood the other, but the gun held a certain authority.

OoOoOoOoO

Barney tried the Marshal's office first, and when he found it empty, he tried the Long Branch. Sam, Clem, and the girls were all there and working hard setting things up for the party that evening, but Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty were both absent. Delmonico's was next, and Barney was relieved to see Doc and the Marshal at a table at the back of the room. "Got a telegram for you, Marshal," he said, "Thought you'd want it right away. I checked at the Long Branch. You know Miss Kitty and Festus aren't back yet?"

"Yes, Barney, I do know that," Matt replied, tearing open the telegram.

"Any answer, Marshal?" Barney asked.

"Nope, not right now. You going to keep the telegraph office open this afternoon, Barney?" Matt asked him.

"Yessir. Until five o'clock. And then I'll be over at the Long Branch if you need me to open up for anything, Marshal."

Dillon nodded his thanks, and passed the telegram to Doc who read it and swiped a hand across the lower part of his face. "You don't feel like you need to go out into the snow and look for this fella, do ya, Matt?" he asked.

"Nope. It's just an advisory to all the local lawmen to keep an eye out for the man and that horse. Looks like it will be a lot easier to recognize the horse than the man, but with this weather, they're probably holed up somewhere waiting out the storm." Matt glanced over at Doc, "If I was to go out, it would be to look for Festus and Kitty."

Doc considered that. "I wouldn't try that just yet, Matt. It's barely one o'clock. They might have gotten a late start from Bess and Will's place, or the snow might have slowed them down. You know she's safe with Festus, and I bet we'll see them driving in shortly."

"I'll give them another hour, and then I'm going to head out towards the Ronninger's to look for them." Matt agreed reluctantly. He had a bad feeling that something was wrong. The two men walked across to the Marshal's office through the increasingly heavy snowfall.

OoOoOoOoO

Kitty was getting more and more worried. She didn't have a watch and neither did Festus, but Katerina's labor pains, though strong, didn't seem to be getting any closer together. The woman was already nearly exhausted. Although she'd helped Doc deliver a number of babies, including three of Bess Ronninger's, Kitty had never delivered a baby on her own. She was confident of her ability to handle a normal birth, but not too sure what to do if there were complications. The only real complications so far were Katerina Maria's inability to communicate, and the slow progress of her labor.

According to what could be gathered from young Friedrich, Katerina Maria was his new mamma and his own mamma had died two years before. The family had lived the last year in eastern Kansas and were now headed somewhere, Friedrich wasn't sure where, to meet up with relatives and start a new farm. Friedrich told them proudly of his year of school and his excellent ability to speak English, but agreed that his mamma and his papa spoke only German. While feeding the children slices of fried ham and chunks of gingerbread, Festus had managed to figure out that their father had left early that morning, and had not fed them before leaving. Festus glanced at the snow-filled sky as he went out to the well to fetch more water, and figured it was long past noon. If Katerina's husband had made it into Dodge, then he and Doc should have been back some time ago.

OoOoOoOoO

But it wasn't the doctor who rode into the Pendleton's yard an hour or two later lying wearily over the neck of a cream-colored mare. Festus heard the horse, and peered out into the yard through a crack in the door. Seeing a stranger, he shushed the children and sent them up the ladder into the loft. Kitty tried to keep Katerina quiet, but her pains had finally begun coming harder and closer together. Her scream startled the stranger just as he was sliding off the horse. The mare whinnied loudly and the half-grown colt, who had been standing quiet but untied in the stall next to where Katerina lay, came charging out onto the floor of the stable and straight into Festus.

When the ruckus was over, the barn door was open and the colt was in the yard with his mother. The rider, gun in hand, was standing over an unconscious Festus, and Katerina still hadn't stopped screaming.

"You there," the man said to Kitty, "What's going on?"

"Woman's having a baby here, mister." Kitty said, "Can you help my friend? He hit his head when that young horse knocked him over."

"What's your name, woman?" the man asked her.

"Kitty Russell," she replied, keeping both her hands and attention on Katerina Maria.

"Well, Kitty Russell, you come out here where I can see you," he said gesturing with the gun. Kitty didn't see the gun, but it wouldn't have mattered if she had, her urgent attention was needed in the darkened stall.

"I can't do that, mister. This baby is on its way, and nothin's going to stop it." Kitty replied.

OoOoOoOoO

It was a little past two and Matt Dillon was saddling his horse to head out when Hank hailed him from the front of the stable. "You better come look at this, Marshal."

Stepping to the door of the livery, Matt saw a tall palomino stallion limping down Front Street with a dark-haired man slumped in the saddle. The horse stopped in the middle of the street, and the man slipped out of the saddle to fall to the snowy ground. Much as he wanted to head out looking for Kitty, Matt knew he'd have to deal with this first. Passing off the horse to Hank, he gathered enough locals to get the rider up to Doc's office.

The horse was clearly the animal described in the telegram, and had been stolen from in front of the bank in Jetmore that had been robbed the day before. Matt shook his head at the foolishness of any man who would ride an uncut horse into town and tie him to a hitching post. That in itself was asking for trouble. Getting him stolen just added sauce to the pudding. Hank was already fomenting the injured hock and let Matt know he didn't expect any permanent damage. The saddle, intricately tooled, seemed to be the one the horse had been wearing when stolen. Of the saddle bags stuffed with money that the robber had stolen, there was no sign.

Stomping up the stairs to Doc's office in the snow, Matt turned to look up the street in the direction Festus and Kitty should be coming from, but there was no trace of the buggy. The man on Doc's table was of medium height and dark haired. He had a bullet in his right leg and had lost a fair amount of blood, but wasn't letting Doc tend to him without a fuss. He was speaking long and furiously, but not in English. "You're going to have to hold that leg while I get out the bullet, Matt." Doc said, "I can't get him to hold still or to stop talking. Something sure seems to be on his mind."

"Can you give him something for the pain, Doc?" Matt asked. "That might calm him down as well."

"I tried, but he wouldn't take it," Doc replied, swabbing at the bleeding wound.

"I'm going to go get Sam, and we'll hold him while you get that bullet out." Matt said, heading for the door, "And maybe we can find someone who speaks his language, and figure out what's going on. What do you think it is?"

"German or Dutch, I'd say," Doc commented.

"_Ya, Deutsche!_" the dark-haired man exclaimed excitedly.

"Dutch it is then." Matt agreed, making the obvious mistake, and heading back down the stairs.

By the time Doc had finished extracting the bullet, with Sam and Matt holding the smaller man steady between them, Clem was climbing the stairs with a cowboy, slightly the worse for liquor, whom he'd found in the Oasis and who claimed to speak German. No one speaking Dutch had been available, but the cowboy, Otto Berger, assured Clem that he could figure out Dutch as well as German.

Pale and stricken with the pain from the removal of the bullet, the man was still clearly in a state of panic to make himself understood. When Otto spoke to him in German, he answered at length in the same language, not letting the other man get a word in edgewise.

"What's it he's so anxious to say, Otto?" Matt asked.

"Says he left his wife and three small children out on the road in a wagon at first light this morning. Says she was having a baby and couldn't travel any further. He headed towards Dodge to get the Doc, but met a man riding that palomino, and the man shot him and stole his horse. He was unconscious for a while but finally managed to mount the lame horse and head him towards Dodge. He's mighty worried about his wife and the baby, Marshal." Otto said.

"You think he's telling the truth, Otto?" Matt asked. The cowboy shrugged his shoulders.

"Matt," Doc said, "If there was a wagon on that road this morning, wouldn't Festus and Kitty have run straight into it on the way back from the Ronninger's?"

Matt nodded thoughtfully. "What's his name, Otto?" he asked, and the cowboy translated.

"Josef Schmidt" the man answered, extending a hand to the Marshal. Making a decision, Matt grasped his hand firmly.

"Otto, you tell him that Doc and I are heading out to look for his wife, but that before we can do that, he has to drink down this medicine." He handed Schmidt the glass and was relieved to see the man nod and swallow the bitter drink. "Doc, can you get Ma Smalley over here to watch him for a few hours? That dose should keep him under, shouldn't it?" Doc nodded and gestured to Sam, who headed out the door to fetch Ma. "Now, Otto, you know Emil and Gretchen Wohlheter? They've got a little place a couple miles south of here?"

"Sure, Marshal. Emil used to be the blacksmith, right?" Otto responded.

"I need you to ride down there and get them, or at least get Gretchen, and head back up the west road to where he said he left that wagon. I know it's snowing, but we'll leave trail for you. Can you do that for me?" Matt asked.

"I can and I will, Marshal. Better than sitting around a saloon on Christmas Eve. But then, anything's better than sitting around a saloon on Christmas Eve. At least at Emil's it will be _Gemütlichkeit._" Berger replied.

Within twenty minutes, Doc had a sleeping Josef Schmidt tucked into the big bed in the back room with Ma Smalley sitting in a rocker next to it – the knitting in her lap neatly covering a loaded sixgun – and Matt and Doc were headed west in the gathering darkness with Buck tied on behind the buggy.

OoOoOoOoO

The situation in the Pendleton barn could have been described as a standoff, but Whit Barlow felt it was more like bedlam than anything else. The grizzled hillman had come round to find himself relieved of his gun and told to sit with his back against the door – but when Kitty Russell had yelled at him to fetch her a basin of hot water, he'd moved quickly to obey, not even seeming to notice the gun Barlow held on him.

A few minutes later, with Festus and Kitty both busy in the stall where Katerina Maria was slowly and loudly delivering her first baby, Barlow noticed another noise and looked up to see three small heads protruding from the hayloft. All three were crying and the littlest girl kept wailing "Mamma" while the other two tried to hush her.

"You kids," Barlow called, hoping to take charge of at least something, "Get down here."

At last, someone was paying attention to him. The boy climbed slowly down the ladder, followed by the larger girl. The smallest girl, however, froze on the ladder, afraid to go up or down, and stood there screaming while her brother and sister tried to talk to her. At the same time a long low scream from Katerina Maria heralded another sound, the wailing cry of a newborn babe. Unable to stand the chaos any longer, Barlow walked over to the ladder and tried to pluck little Louisa off it with his good right arm. The child kicked him hard, managing to hit the bullet wound in his left arm square on, and he fainted to the floor.

When Barlow came to, he found himself sitting propped in a corner of the barn with his gun gone and his hands tied in front of him. His left arm was bleeding again, and three small children squatted in front of him, their tear-stained faces intent on his. The screaming had stopped, and a rush of snow and cold air blew in the door as Festus, his gun again gracing his holster, led the mare through the barn door and into the empty stall, her colt following eagerly behind. Barlow's eyes narrowed as he noticed that his saddle bags were still slung over the mare's withers, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

"Kind sir," Friedrich called out to Festus, "The bad man, he is awake."

"Well, you alls just watch him then," Festus replied, "And let me know if he makes airy a move."

Festus was glad the baby was finally born. He'd wrapped the child up in several clean towels and laid him in a feedbox filled with hay and covered with a folded sheet. Kitty was still busy with Katerina Maria, and Festus had midwifed enough horses to know there was more to come before everything could settle down. He wished Doc were here, and he wished he knew what ailed that young fella in the corner, drawing a gun on them when they were too busy to pay attention to him. Festus wondered how the man had come to be riding in on what was clearly the family's mare, but he figured he'd ask those questions later. He stood at the front of the stall with his back to Kitty and her patient, trying to give the two of them what privacy he could.

Kitty washed the young mother as best she could, and washed her own hands as well. In the darkness of the stall, she didn't notice the blood on her arms or her face, where she'd wiped her hair back with bloody hands, or staining the towel she'd tucked around her waist. She found herself shivering, and realizing that Katerina would be twice as cold, she removed her shawl and wrapped it around her, laying her back in the hay and covering her with a blanket from the wagon. Kitty stood up and went to stand by Festus, exhausted but deeply satisfied. She had no idea of the spectacle she presented as the barn door opened and Doc Adams and Matt Dillon stepped through.

"Well, golly bill, Doc," Festus said, "I was just standin' here wishin' you would get here."

"You were, were ya?" Doc answered him, not taking his eyes off Kitty. "You all right, Kitty? Baby come all right?"

Matt had already stripped off his coat and walked forward to wrap it around Kitty's bloody and chilled figure. "You okay, Kitty?" he asked.

"I'm awful glad you're here, Doc. You too, Matt. I think Katerina Maria's all right, but I wish you'd look at her Doc. And Festus has the baby over there by the stove where it's warmer."

"_Festus_ has the baby…" Doc exclaimed, but as he walked across the floor, he began nodding slowly as he saw the warmly swaddled child lying sleeping in a manger full of hay. "Well, I'll be dad-blamed, I guess we really do have a Christmas baby here."

OoOoOoOoO

There was plenty more to do, but with Doc in charge, it all took place in an orderly manner. Barlow's arm was examined and bandaged. The bullet had gone straight through, and with the bleeding stopped and handcuffs replacing the ropes on his wrists, he ended up accepting his arrest quietly.

Emil and Gretchen Wohlheter arrived shortly, having left their own children in Otto's care, and Kitty was glad to be able to give up her place at Doc's side to the experienced and German-speaking Gretchen. It was kind and stolid Emil who wet a towel with warm water and gently wiped the blood from Kitty's face and arms, before going to talk with the children.

But when the baby woke and started fussing, it was Festus who lifted him up against his shoulder and began singing to him. "Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright." At the sound of his rich voice, the baby quieted, and around the room voices joined in, some in English, some in German, as Festus carried the child to lay him in Katerina Maria's arms.

Matt stood next to Kitty, watching the scene. "Looks like you had a pretty hard time of it, Kitty," he said quietly. "I was mighty worried when you and Festus didn't get back from the Ronninger's place at noontime."

"I'm glad you found us, Matt, and I sure was glad to see Doc. When I think that he handles things like this all the time…" Kitty shook her head. "I wouldn't trade jobs with him for the world," she said, and then, as if that thought brought with it memories of the Long Branch, she exclaimed, "My Christmas party! Oh, Matt, we both missed it this year!"

But he just smiled and settled his coat more firmly around her shoulders, "Guess we did, Kitty."

Looking around her at the lighted stable, she met his smile, "This just might be the best Christmas I've ever had, Matt, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Merry Christmas, cowboy."

"Merry Christmas, Kitty."


End file.
